The Search for Spike
by Black Dracus
Summary: When Cloud goes missing, it falls to Cid, Yuffie, and Leon to find him and bring him home to Traverse Town. What they find along the way is more than they ever expected. Cid/Yuffie and Cloud/Leon. M for very severe language, and later chapters.
1. Chapter 1: The Taste of Eternity

The Search for Spike

A.N.: This won't all be narrated by Cid. But it's he who brought me the story, and so it's he who gets the first chapter. Only fair.

I also have to say that I haven't done a chaptered fic in a long time; we'll see how it goes.

Chapter One: The Taste of Eternity

Cid Highwind had always wanted to be a hero.

Not because he wanted beautiful women, tons of gil, or any of that shit. Those things were as transient as the people who valued them; Cid wanted to be eternal. He wanted to die knowing he wasn't really dying, knowing that his name would echo in the ears of others for generations. He wanted to _mean_ something.

Cid's first taste of immortality had come the day he had been selected by Shin-Ra to lead the space program, and it had been far too swift and small for his liking. Victory was like a drug for Cid; the minute he had it, he wanted more. The satisfaction that came with being the best scratched an itch so deep inside him that no woman or pack of smokes had ever come close to reaching it. It was why he'd hated Shera so much for ruining the rocket launch; the bitch had come between him and what he wanted, and even years later after he'd been proven in the wrong, after he'd married her and slept in the same bed as her, even named an airship after her, he still hated that feeling. Still hated her, a little, for making him feel it. For _denying_ him his shot at the stars.

Cid Highwind was not a man to be denied, and back when there had been AVALANCHE, the Planet and Meteor, Red and Vincent and Geostigma, Cid Highwind had wanted to be remembered, and there had never been enough hours in the day for him to work toward that goal.

Cid Highwind had been a fool.

He had eternity now, a gift from the Heartless.

He had it, and he didn't have a single fuckin' clue what to do with the time he'd been given. Because the thing people tell you about being a hero is, the thing they always forget to mention; most of the time, you do it alone.

He had what he finally wanted, and he'd trade it for ten fucking minutes in Costa Del Sol, getting plastered on double-shot margaritas and watching the bouncing tits of the girls in swimsuits. Except that Costa Del Sol was so much dust among dust, and come to think of it, so were those pretty little ladies too.

Except for their hearts, of course.

Those were probably still kicking around somewhere.

The thought sent a shiver down Cid's spine, and he took another pull from the whiskey bottle to burn off the chill. It was cold in the gummi ship hangar, because he had the blast doors open. His breath curled out in a fog so pungent with alcohol that it would probably have knocked out a Shadow had one chosen to appear. The stars above Traverse Town were clear and sharp this evening, though, and a little cold wasn't going to stop him from admiring them in peace.

They served as a ready distraction from the huge, sheet-covered hulk of ship that filled the hangar in front of him. Yep, Cid figured that with the stars looking like this every night, he could ignore that gummi ship forever. Shit, give him a few more bottles of whiskey, and he might be able to forget that Spike had been missing for almost a month now—and wasn't it odd, how he'd disappeared less than 24 hours before they found Aeris, sitting on the edge of the fountain like she'd risen from the waves. Venus Rising, or whatever that painting was called. She hadn't been naked, but the hair was around the same color and he'd been so happy to see someone he knew, he hadn't even cared about the clothes. Really.

Cloud had been missing for almost a month now, and he could feel the subject hovering around them unspoken when the group of them was together, sharing a meal, or when one of the girls came in to clean the place. Even Leon was starting to look a little uncomfortable with it, and Cid knew that if Leon was aware something needed to be discussed, things were worse than he'd thought. Aeris would turn to him with those pretty wide eyes and that voice they had all thought was silent forever, or Yuffie would lay nimble fingers on slim hips and trumpet it out, or Leon would clear his throat and grunt, and someone would inquire as to the status of his ship. Inquire as to the status of its pilot, and was he up for a small search mission? Just the local planets, of course, the rocket the three of them—Cid, Cloud, and Yuffie puking her guts out in the rear-- had flown off the Planet had been too rickety to make it very far, Cloud was probably stranded wherever he'd ended up after he stole it…

It made sense, of course. But the thought of getting behind the controls, of taking on responsibility and goals and plans, of bearing the burden of carrying other people's hope again, was too much. He'd been up to bat in this game before, hit two home runs, but the third go round, he'd failed big time. The gilt had flaked off those cheap victories, and exposed the void beneath. There was always one more fight, one more chapter, and Cid Highwind was damn tired of turning pages. That kid who'd come through here, he expected all of them to jump right in, stop the Heartless and save people they didn't know, worlds that weren't home, and Cid wanted to shake him and shake him until he understood.

"_We were heroes once too_." He wanted to yell. _"All you're doing is starting a tale that doesn't have a happy ending. That girl you love will be dead or forget you, your friend will kill you or cast you aside once you help him, and you're never going to get home again because home is gone forever, swallowed up."_

"What's up, old man? I smelled that rotgut whiskey you're drinking all the way from the street and thought I'd come reprimand you. Tifa would be disgusted you wasted your gil on that crap."

Cid tried not to flinch. Whether it was at the mention of Tifa's name, the forced jocularity in Yuffie's tone that implied she saw his small flow of tears, or the fact that she was right, he didn't know. He figured a combination of all three was probably at the heart of the urge, but pushed the thought aside with a snort. Didn't matter.

"Tifa ain't here, and you shouldn't know anything about whiskey anyway, you little brat. You're a minor."

Yuffie flashed him a broad, sly grin, and didn't respond. She instead hopped up next to him on the crates, curling her knees to her chest and leaning back on splayed palms to stare up at the stars. He took another pull from the bottle, emptying it to spite her, and pitched the vessel across the room, where it splintered against the sheet-covered hull of the ship.

"Grouch. Look out, or you'll damage her before the maiden voyage."

"There ain't gonna be a fuckin' voyage." He growled, biting down hard enough to splinter his toothpick. Paper thin wood curled soggy against his tongue as he sneered across the crate at Yuffie, whose face was suddenly expressionless, smooth and unsettling as those creepy masks the actors wore back in Wutai, what seemed like a millennium ago.

"I never promised anything." He said, this time almost defensively. He could hear himself convincing himself—and wasn't that just about the most surreal fucking experience?

She sighed then, and slid off the crate to stand with her back to him. One hand rested on an aggressively cocked hip, the wrist surprisingly slender without the targe attached. Her headband fluttered prettily in the breeze coming from the open doors overhead.

"You didn't promise anything because none of us have anything left to offer, Cid. This place, this time, is about rebuilding."

"And you can't do that without Cloud." He said.

"No, you jackass. We can't do that without you."

Her voice was surprisingly raw in contrast with the cold, statuesque manner in which she stood. Had she been Aeris, he would have given in right then, and Tifa would have needed only to stand in the moonlight with a hip cocked for him to do her bidding. But the fact of the matter was, this was Yuffie, and Yuffie was neither stacked like pancakes nor a sweet girl. She was not docile, or straightforward. Accept something from her, and you found yourself entering into a contract more binding than a fucking Shin-Ra PHS service plan—and that was saying something.

She was trying to play the guilt card, and as so often when playing cards with Yuffie, Cid smelled a rat.

"Cut the shit, Yuffie. You know I ain't buyin', and we ain't goin'."

She muttered something he didn't quite catch then, and that he didn't really have to. Her body going from rigid and perfect form to something curled and defensive, cringing, carried the message of her statement to him quite well. He did feel guilty then—for all the shit he gave her, Yuffie probably had some kind of moral compass in there somewhere, and unlike him, her heart was in the right place in this situation.

"Aw, Yuff." He growled, reverting to the old nickname. "You know I didn't—"

"Great!" She shouted, her body uncurling and spinning to spring toward him like those snakes out of the can the kids in Rocket Town

_(Hey Mr Cid want some peanuts?)_

used to fuck around with. Her arms curled around his neck with the easy grace he had forgotten women held in them, and her lips brushed against his cheek in a smooth and silky caress, not at all the sloppy wet thing he had expected.

"You're the best! Leon and I will be here first thing tomorrow!"

"Wait---Leon?"

In his shock, Cid's mind had gone numb, and become able to only focus on details such as _Yuffie didn't slobber on me_ and _Leon is coming._ The greater notion that he had been thoroughly and irrevocably manipulated wouldn't sink in until he had walked almost all the way home.

Then, all he could do was pack, and deliberately forget the motion sickness potions the triplets brought over when they heard the news.

Chapter Two


	2. Chapter 2: Hope

This one goes out to NaroRau, who made me realize I forgot to post this chapter that has been done for a week. Thanks for the review.

Chapter Two

Yuffie Kisaragi had never wanted to be a thief.

She had wanted even less to be a princess, and the irony of the fact that being a princess had forced her into being a thief was not lost on her. It was, in fact, her greatest source of amusement; at night, when she couldn't sleep, she turned it around and examined it from all sides, chuckling at each razor thin cut the edges made. It was either laugh or cry these days, and unlike most of the other refugees, Yuffie had chosen to laugh. Seemed like a waste of energy, crying, and in times like these, energy was a precious commodity not unlike the Mako she remembered. Like Mako, it had to be mined, dredged up from the dark recesses of the living heart, and refined, distilled into emotion and labor and hope.

That last, the hope, that was the most precious of all. There was so little of it these days. Aeris knew the secrets of its production—with a smile and a tilt of her head, a hand on the shoulder, she doled out what she had in equal amounts.

Yuffie had been thinking that was why Cloud must have loved her. Back then, back on the Planet, only he had needed her hope, and so she had given it all to him, and he had fed on it. That was what SOLDIERs did, after all. They fed, and left desolation in their wake. Not unlike some other creatures Yuffie had become familiar with of late. No, it wasn't for Cloud's sake she had gone and guilt tripped Cid into this crazy search; for all she cared, Cloud could finally join the Lifestream, Da Chao Guide You Safely Home, Sleep Well Fair Traveler.

It was for Aeris, who was so busy giving out her hope these days she wasn't keeping much for herself. And Yuffie figured that Cloud damn well had a debt to pay, and it was his fucking job to come back here and fix all this mess.

Because Yuffie Kisaragi might be a thief, but Cloud Strife was a killer, and he was killing Aeris with every day he spent away. He didn't even have to love her, or even speak to her—all he had to do was stand there being spiky and looking vaguely like Aeris's dead ex boyfriend, and everything would be all right again.

Or at least, those were the facts as Yuffie had convinced herself they stood as she leaned against the door outside the gummi ship hangar and waited for Leon. The sun was barely risen in the sky, and Leon was a notoriously late sleeper. Cid was already inside; he had passed by her with a baleful glare and a particularly snarky chomp on the toothpick, but inside she could hear the ship warming up, and she figured that was all right, he could be snarky as long as the ship took off.

Leon slunk around the corner, his shoulders hunched and face buried deep in his coat collar to ward off the early morning bite in the air. As he approached, Yuffie tossed him a grin and picked up her own small knapsack containing the few things she had decided to bring. Unlike Aeris and Tifa, Yuffie had always understood the benefits of packing light. She had decided once that it was due to the fact that Aeris and Tifa had so little that they wanted to carry it all with them, each feminine trinket and small token attached to a memory.

Most of Yuffie's belongings had been empty remnants of an emptier childhood. Her shuriken and her materia were the only things that held any real meaning, and the materia were useless now, colored baubles she had strung together in long ropes and hung around her room, garlands of forgotten power. She had been unable to leave behind Leviathan, however; he rested in her left bracer, sleeping. At least that's what she told herself. Just sleeping. One day he'd come out again. She knew it.

"Cid inside?" Leon said as he walked up, his voice slightly muffled through the jacket. Even with half his face covered, Yuffie was simultaneously awestruck and envious of the man's odd, ethereal beauty, somehow delicate and masculine at the same time, like the cut of her father's formal kimono or the way Staniv used to train in the pagoda courtyard, cherry blossoms falling all around him.

"Yep. Warming up his new ride. Our new ride, I guess." Yuffie said cheerfully in response, pushing Wutai and all its many faces from her mind as the two of them turned and walked side by side into the hangar. The gummi ship was glowing, the soft hum and throb of the light foreign in all the wrong ways from the loud, stinky airships she was used to. She saw a similar shadow cross Leon's face as the gangplank lowered and the two of them stepped on board, boots clanking on the metal.

She had often wondered about Leon's past, but she'd never quite mustered up the courage to ask. Unlike AVALANCHE, none of Leon's comrades had made it to Traverse Town, and so she was unable to pump any of them for information. The man was alone, and the two things Yuffie had been able to figure out were that he had been alone a lot of his life, but not at the time the Heartless attacked. His eyes were too haunted for that; too many shadows lurked in those depths, turning dove grey to cold iron that rang in his voice and footsteps and the beating of his heart. His sleep was too troubled and his days too guarded. Leon, perhaps more than any of the other human denizens of Traverse Town, was a man broken, with no one who knew enough of the pieces to put them back together.

Yuffie was distracted from her musings on the topic of Leon by Cid, thumping down the hallway, his fingers covered in tiny globules of gelatin Gummi.

"I hate this damn thing. Don't know why I fucking built the fucker in the first place." He said in a low growl around his toothpick, wiping his hands forcefully on his jeans.

"Fate, maybe." Leon said softly, shifting the strap of his backpack on his shoulder. Cid snorted.

"Fate's a cold hearted whore, and she don't tell me to do nothin'. Stow your shit and get in the gun turret, Leon. It's a bumpy ride, from what I hear. Heartless are everywhere these days, even in the tunnels between worlds. "

The taciturn blademan moved to comply, and Cid turned to Yuffie.

"As for you, get in the 'fresher. I may not be too fond of this heap of goo, but I damn well don't want your puke all over the place. Especially not when I know for a fact you ate four fried egg sandwiches this morning."

Yuffie scowled at him. "You, Cid Highwind, are a dirty breakfast stalker."

Cid chuckled around his toothpick. "Aerith told me to look out. Sweet of her. Nice to see her first thing in the morning too. Fresh faced, smelling good…"

Yuffie continued to scowl at Cid's smirk, his retreating back, as he went past her down the hallway toward the cockpit. He knew how insecure she was about her appearance, knew how jealous she was of Aerith (though that was nothing compared to Tifa, willowy runway model who could kick a hole through your face and leave you happy about it). He didn't exploit it usually, but today he was in a particularly foul mood, and no one in their right mind taunted Leon. It was a coin toss—he'd kill you, or kill himself. Either one was a bad start to a journey, and so she was to bear the brunt of Cid's displeasure. Yuffie was of course pretending to forget she had completely duped Cid into this journey in the first place. She secretly enjoyed the bickering too much to excuse his bad behavior, though a team of men trained in the Seven Da Chao Tortures couldn't have wrangled it out of her. With Cait Sith annihilated and Vincent gone, there just weren't enough people to pick on and be picked on by these days.

"Dirty pervert stalker. Sexism, that's what that is. Discrimination." She said under her breath, turning to stalk toward the bunks and stow her stuff. She needed to make sure she got the one closest to the bathroom in case of any late night upsets.


	3. Chapter 3: Pain

A.N.: Sorry for the wait, and also sorry for the kind of shoddy fighting at the end. I'm really not that bad at writing fights, I swear--this one just wouldn't come when I called.

Chapter Three: Pain

Space was nothing like Leon remembered. It made him angry, though anyone looking at him would have seen only a stoic countenance illuminated harshly by the kaleidoscope of the cosmos passing outside. Anger, like other emotions, found no room on Leon's face; it didn't need it.

There was more than enough room in his heart.

The change in space made him angry for the same reason all change did; it made the past meaningless.

Where in this melted mass of space-time fabric were the constellations Elle had taught them, where were the falling stars he had wished on? Where could he salvage the moon that had once hung silvery bright over Balamb and Esthar and yes, even Galbadia? Where were the asteroids that Selphie had braved during their flight from Centra, battering the Ragnarok to pieces while behind them the Heartless took their home? Most of all he wondered, most of all the beating of his heart begged; where oh where were the stars he had parted like curtains to reach his Rinoa, spiraling through space, bleeding oxygen and power and beauty as Adel drew her in?

He knew the answer, and the answer made him angry. Made them all angry; he knew they all wondered, Cid with his toothpicks and his whiskey he hid inside glasses of orange juice at breakfast, Yuffie with _materia_, strange globes she said once held magic even though Leon knew damn well magic could only come from living things and Aerith, the Ancient, with the flowers no one wanted because in Traverse Town, unlike Midgar, people could pick flowers for free.

They all wondered what place they had in a universe without stars to reach for.

Leon's dark ponderings were intruded upon by a sudden splattering sound from somewhere behind him, toward the cabin of the ship, followed by the slightly less loud bellows of Cid Highwind and the shrill yapping response of Yuffie Kisaragi. He couldn't make out what they were saying over his own firing of the turret (an almost automatic process), but from the angry tone, he could think of only two things that had produced the sound.

Either Yuffie had thrown up, or something had blown up.

* * *

Yuffie was in the 'fresher when it happened. Drawing on the walls, admittedly, but Cid had ordered her in here, and since she wasn't feeling airsick, she had to find something to do. She had just finished up what she thought was a particularly fine rendition of Da Chao when from outside came a loud, rather wet, explosion.

She pulled open the plastic door to a wave of heat and steam that caused her to cry out and throw a hand in front of her face. She could barely make out Cid through the white billows as he tried to worm his way into a hole in the wall. Gummi was everywhere, dripping from the ceiling and sticking to the bottoms of her boots, condensing in her hair along with the steam.

"You! You're tinier than me, get the fuck over here and stop gaping!" Cid yelled, spotting her. His blonde hair was thick with Gummi, sticking up in peaks to rival Cloud's, but his faded blue eyes were so frantic Yuffie couldn't find it in her to laugh at the moment. Instead she stepped towards him through the clouds of steam, boots squishing.

"You gotta climb in there and turn this valve, it'll shut off the steam." Cid shouted at her over the hissing of the vapor.

"Won't the ship overheat?" Yuffie yelled back, immediately gratified by the baffled, impressed look Cid gave her. One of his Gummi-coated eyebrows shot up so far she thought it had gone for good.

"Yeah, but we're close to a planet anyway. We'll make it, as long as the ship stops directing extra power over here to try to regenerate. The valve is on the right. Be careful not to burn your fool self."

The warning was eerily reminiscent of Barret. She tried not to let it sting as she climbed into the hole the exploding pipe had made. It was a tight fit even for her, the Gummi slick against her back and knees as she slid between the jagged ends of pipe curling from the wall. Behind the pipe the goo was molten and growing, curling hot down her scalp and onto her forehead, into the corner of her eye, even as new Gummi trying to mend the wound wormed its way into her hair, searing the small of her back and curling behind her kneecaps as she groped for the valve switch. It only took a moment to find the small metal wheel, which was also white with heat. It blistered her palm as she turned it three times to the right. Each turn dramatically lessened the steam behind her until it was gone.

She peeled herself out of the hole, Cid's gruff thanks lost to the ringing in her ears and the throb all over her body. The eye the Gummi had gone into was swelling quickly, and her palm felt like the skin was gone. Her head was spinning. She felt gentle hands tugging her to her feet and then she was back in the 'fresher, cool water on her face, her palm. Her head cleared and she looked up at Cid in the mirror. He'd taken off his bandanna and was wetting it in the small pump sink, his face serious and his eyes still stricken.

For her, maybe? Or just the ship. Probably the ship, she decided as he knotted the dripping strip of fabric around her hand.

"I don't got any Cure, but Leon might. Ask him when we land." Cid said, pulling a clean toothpick from his pants pocket. He had looked oddly naked missing both the bandanna and his oral fix, and Yuffie was glad one was returning. He seemed to be as well; the panic left his eyes, for the most part, and he patted her on the shoulder.

"Try not to draw on my wall anymore. With that hurt hand, shit'll look even worse." He said on his way out, and she chuckled involuntarily, wetting her hand in the sink to try and ease the pain in the small of her back.

* * *

By the time they landed on the planet's surface, Cid had splintered his way through half a box of toothpicks. It was a rough descent, with the ship's controls beeping at him about the overheating and a particularly vicious set of those crazy rings and loops for him to navigate right before the atmospheric barrier. Not to mention the nagging guilt at the back of his head concerning the brat's injuries; her swollen eye, the flower shape of the valve seared into her palm. He hadn't caused the ship to malfunction—shit, considering she'd never been flown before and he'd been drunk during a lot of construction, they'd gotten off easy. But he still felt bad. Maybe he should cut back on the drink during the repairs.

Not that this place they had happened on looked like it had much in the way of alcohol. The ship had landed in a sandy desert devoid of most geographic features. The landscape was dominated by a huge columned building of brown stone, decorated with statues along the top.

The other thing Cid spotted wasn't a structure native to the planet, but he was happy to see it nonetheless. The remains of his rocket lay crumpled between the Gummi ship and the building. Cloud was here, unless he'd hitched a ride somehow.

Cid shut down the engine and stepped into the hallway outside the cockpit to find Leon and Yuffie already waiting. It was obvious that Leon had hit her with a Cure; the swelling around her eye was gone, and she held up the repaired palm for him to examine. She was still covered in Gummi, but shit, so was he, and there was sure to be water somewhere.

"I saw the wreckage of the rocket outside. Looks like we struck gold on our first try." Cid said to his companions, and it was with good spirits the team gathered their gear and headed toward the nearby structure.

Almost immediately upon exiting the ship, they encountered the Heartless, swarming up out of the sand.

"Press toward the building! Don't let them drive us back!" Leon shouted, and the three of them were off, tearing forward through shadow and sand. Cid struck only at the Heartless that appeared before him, the tines of his lance shredding them to pieces as he swung, pierced, and thrust his way across the plain toward the building. They were kicking up a wake of dust, and it was full of the Heartless they were leaving behind, most dead, some not.

As they neared the building, a single reinforcement came out. He was a large enough guy, with curling red hair and a golden sword, but Cid still found himself annoyed. He was willing to bet all the Munny these Hearless were dropping that somewhere in there, Cloud was watching out a window, eyes cold. The prick. He always put his own plans first, his own well being. If Cloud had business on this planet, he'd feed his rescuing party to the Heartless with a side of rice if it meant achieving his goal.

Cid lamented that he didn't have it in him to respond to the taciturn SOLDIER in kind. Such was the curse of a fucking soft touch like himself.

The red-headed guy met them at the base of the large stone staircase leading into the building.

"Get inside! I'll hold them off!" he called in a gallant, commanding tone. Cid followed his instructions with a chuckle. More heroes. Seemed these planets were full of them, wandering and wondering just what to do with themselves now that they weren't really heroes anymore. Not to themselves, anyway.

At the top of the stairs was a wide stone courtyard framed in urns, leading up to a set of huge bronze double doors. Framing the doors were two statues, each holding a sword high to form an arch over the entrance. It was all bronze and gold and smooth brown stone. Hyper-masculine. Cid liked it on sight.

"More visitors! We're glad to have you." the man who had come to meet them said as he gained the top of the stairs. Though he had just dispatched about three dozen Shadows, his voice was as commanding and firm as it had been before the battle.

"I'm Hercules." He continued, "and this is the Coliseum."

"We're looking for someone. His name is Cloud." Leon said. Cid snorted. Leon never had been one for niceties such as introductions, or words like please. It was one of the reasons he liked the kid.

"Yes." Hercules said, obviously taken aback by Leon's curtness. "Well, you'd better come inside and get cleaned up, before anything else. I daresay you're probably hungry too."

With this, Hercules gestured toward the doors, which opened.

"Sounds lovely." Yuffie said huffily, sparing Leon a testy glance. "I'm Yuffie Kisaragi, and this is…"

As Yuffie chatted up the local, Cid fell back to talk with Leon.

"This guy seems all right, yeah?" Cid asked.

"Maybe. I'd rather get back to town as soon as possible. I'm sure Cloud is tired of being stuck here." Leon said quietly, his eyes guarded.

"Oh, buddy." Cid chuckled as they entered the building Hercules called the Coliseum. "You don't know Spike at all."


End file.
